Panic overwhelmed Luna upon opening his eyes. A few feet above him, Lei was hanging unconscious. Her arms and legs were widely spread and roped to the four wooden pillars of the king-sized bed where Luna was lying flat on his back. He was not bounded by anything, but he felt a strong invisible force pinning him down on the bed.

He was in a room that was dark and empty except for the ancient bed where he and Lei were stuck. Its appearance was totally different from the previous room where Lei had taken him captive but the strangeness he felt was distressingly the same.

What happened to Sol and Dad? he struggled out of the bed but to no avail.

"Kill her!!!" the dreadful voice had finally came out of his head and thundered all over the dark room. "She killed your father and twin brother!!! Avenge them!!!"

"You're lying!!!" Luna was shaking his head in denial. "I will never kill for you."

“If you let her live, she will relentlessly come after you. She will not stop until you become her sex slave. Will you let the sacrifice of your father and twin brother be wasted? Kill her now, Luna!” the dreadful voice loudly commanded.

“Whatever you say, I will never kill anyone!!!” Luna yelled as loudly as he could and finally freed himself from the invisible force binding him. He tried to release Lei, but the moment he touched the ropes, they vanished like a bubble popping, dropping Lei on top of him with eyes wide open.

“You've been given a chance to get rid of me, but you wasted it,” Lei pushed Luna harder down on the bed and softly whispered, “I know why you can't kill me,” she tenderly kissed his lips before saying, “You liked it. You are also filled with lust,” Luna struggled hard but despite Lei having a tiny body, her strength was beyond compare. He could not shove her off him. “Stop pretending, Luna. You cannot escape who you really are,” she smiled wickedly at him before breathing on his face, “You are sin. You can never be cleansed.”

“Shut up!!!” Luna roared with all the air in his lungs, until he finally pulled himself out of that awful nightmare.

He jerked awake inside a hospital ward. There were plenty of beds there but his was the only one occupied and, to his great disbelief, Mom was sitting beside his bed, firmly holding his hand and sincerely staring at him with concern.

“Luna, it’s okay. You’re only dreaming.” Even her voice sounded so worried.

“Mom…” he rolled to his side and pulled her hand towards his chest. He tightly embraced her hand. He waited so long for that warmth… for that look… for that touch… for that love.

With her free hand, Mom gently stroked his hair out of his forehead and placed her palm over it.

“You’re still burning up with fever. Are you hurting somewhere?” the worry in her voice was music to Luna’s ears. He only closed his eyes and touched her hand over his cheek. The warmth of her touch was comforting.

“Luna, why are you not saying anything?” she asked, sounding more worried.

“I’m okay, Mom. I only need to rest,” Luna mumbled with a joyful smile.

“Okay then. Go back to sleep,” she had sweetly spoken while gently stroking his hair.

Even though Luna was afraid to have the same nightmare once he had fallen asleep, he could not fight the drowsiness her gentle strokes were causing him.

^#######################################^

Dad was stuck between the steering wheel and the driver’s seat, unconscious, bleeding, and dying. Luna was trying to get to him but no matter how fast he ran, he was not closing in on him. It was like running on a treadmill.

“DAD, WAKE UP!!! DON’T DIE. DAD, PLEASE!!! DAD!!!”

Luna jerked awake, crying. He fearfully glanced around the hospital ward and found himself alone. The beds were empty. There were neither nurses nor doctors around. Mom was nowhere to be found. He was either dreaming or hallucinating when he had seen her earlier. Mom would never care like that for him. But Sol and Dad should be with him.

Luna shut his eyes when terrifying images flashed on his mind. Dad was inside the car, as still as a corpse, bleeding. Sol was lying on the ground, writhing in pain. Lei swiftly approached them and mercilessly killed them with her bare hands.

“You should have killed me when you had been given the chance,” Lei had ruthlessly spoken those words while holding the bloody corpses of Dad and Sol.

“NO!!! DAD!!! SOL!!! He hastily moved out of the bed but his trembling knees buckled and he tumbled on the floor. “DAD!!! SOL!!!” Luna was upset that he could yell out loud but could not summon the strength to get back up on his feet. “DON’T DIE!!! PLEASE, DON’T!!!”

“Luna, I’m here,” Sol came running up the stairs and towards him. Dad was trailing behind his twin brother, limping. Bandages were wrapped around Dad’s left leg and forehead while Sol appeared to be unscathed.

“Get up,” Dad helped Luna up on his feet and back to the bed.

“You’re alive,” Luna breathed with relief as he tightly embraced his father and grabbed Sol by the arm. “You too, Sol. Please, stay alive.”

“Of course, we are alive. No one’s dying any time soon,” Sol ruffled his brother’s hair. “You’re still burning up with fever. Get more rest.”

“I don’t want to sleep,” Luna finally let go of Dad and Sol as his fear subsided and his body stopped trembling. “What happened to Lei? I saw her walked out of the black sedan that crashed on our car then… suddenly… my mind went blank,” his forehead creased as he tried to remember what happened but nothing was coming back to him aside from the darkness that devoured him after staring angrily at Lei. “All I can see in my dreams were bloody corpses of you two.”

“You don’t remember attacking her?”

Luna was stunned when he heard those words from Sol.

“I… attacked her?”

“You had been stopped by Dr. Jerami,” Dad replied, staring seriously at Luna.

“A doctor stopped me from attacking Lei? What kind of doctor is he?” Luna asked, amazed yet confused.

“She,” Sol corrected. “Dr. Jerami is a beautiful doctor. But I don’t know if we can trust her.”

“We can trust her,” Dad confidently stated. “She can also help the two of you learn more about your gifts.”

Luna rubbed his throbbing temple. Anxiety crept up on him as everything around him felt like an endless puzzling and disturbing nightmares.

“Dad, tell us everything we need to know,” Sol impatiently demanded as he sat beside Luna. “Stop confusing us.”

Dad let out a heavy sigh before saying, “Okay. I will tell you everything I know.”

^##############################^